


Shadows of the Heart

by Diamuil_Death



Series: Children of the Sea [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon Related, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Language Barrier, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24382126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diamuil_Death/pseuds/Diamuil_Death
Summary: A slave joins the Strawhats just before they're torn apart.Zoro finds himself with a tag-along he can't get rid of.The story starts at the end of the Sabaody Archipelago arc and follows along Zoro's arc. It won't stay with the canon.
Series: Children of the Sea [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760617
Kudos: 4





	Shadows of the Heart

The chain rubs her neck and wrists raw, making her skin irritated red and bloody. Her body aches and no matter how much her skin tans it always burns in the sun.  
She doesn’t like this land, the people speak a different language and glower at her.  
She wants to go home, where there are people who love her and she understands what is happening.  
She had been put to work on a ship for years on end until they took her to this building on an island of trees. An island made of trees?  
Now she sits on a box in a large cell, foreign symbols written on the wall behind her and strange people on either side of her. The men in charge seemed upset with her current state but they motioned her to a spot to sit.  
She catches sight of a mermaid being brought in and recognizes a giant nearby but there aren’t any other creatures similar to those from her homeland.  
Slowly the cell is emptying. When her turn comes she is given baggy clothes to hide her thin frame, her hair tied back to show her ears, and her hands are chained together.  
Being escorted to the stage, the presence of so many people overwhelms her.  
One of the others standing in the middle of the stage. A man speaking loudly to an audience she can’t quite see due to the light shining on the stage.  
They’re escorted off the stage and she’s shoved forward.  
The lights are too bright, the people staring, making her cower. The loud man stands to her side, automatically catching her attention, her elongated ears twisting down and grey markings glowing in distress.  
Several members of the audience gasp, others shout in their language.  
After a lot more shouting she’s ushered off stage, several more being put up for display until the mermaid.  
Then there was a rumbling and a loud commotion.  
People were running away and the man on stage pulled out a gun. The curtains in front of the fishbowl fell.  
Then the back wall split open and an old man stepped out, a giant holding the cloth apart.  
She watches as the people still in the building speak, an oddly shaped man with blue hair runs past her and stops between her and the old man. He holds up a ring of keys, shouting.  
He throws the ring towards her and she quickly motions for another person to help unlock her.  
After she helps them unlock the chain, she steps off the stage and towards the group of people around the octopus man.  
She places an arm on one with a long nose and his panic seems to ebb.  
“Who are you?”  
She tilts her head and blinks at him.  
After some shouting outside the group leaves the building and steps onto a battlefield. The woman follows closely, not a single one of the uniformed men touching her.  
The group climbs onto some oddly saddled fish, not questioning the strange woman as she joins them.  
They stop to beat up another group then leave for a bar.  
The woman hesitates before stepping over the threshold, the old man from before speaking. Most of the people there are surprised by whatever it was he said and don’t notice her entrance.  
The old man is the first to see her, “(Come here.)”  
Her eyes light up at the sound of her home language. She complies, standing beside him and rubbing her arm.  
The boy with the straw hat shouts but the man ignores him and pats the stool beside him where the skeleton had been before standing up, “(sit here.)”  
The old man continues to talk, the boy with the straw hat exclaiming enthusiastically every few minutes.  
When he finishes, the man turns to the too-thin woman, patting her hand that rests on the bar, “(You’re a long way from home. What’s your name?)”  
Her fingers twitch and she responds in a soft murmur, “Sheila.” Her voice is small and frail, a far cry from her overabundant childish cheer of the past.  
The boy leaned against the bar and asked her a question that the man answered. “She’s from a place very hard to find even if you travel through the ‘New World’”  
He turns to the woman, “(Luffy asked where you were from. How well do you know our language?)” She shakes her head and he smiles.  
“She doesn’t know our language.”  
Luffy grins, “Well, tell her if she wants to go home we can take her if she becomes my Nakama.”  
The man translates and her brow furrows, “Nakama?”  
“Min.”  
Her eyes seem to glow, a flicker of familiarity and hope “Min?” She hesitates, peering at the boy.  
“We don’t need to know what you’re saying to be Nakama, we just need to understand each other.” The old man doesn’t translate as the pirate’s persistence speaks for itself.  
Sheila quirks a smile. “(I will)”  
The man pats her shoulder and stands, once again speaking in his language.  
The skeleton catches Sheila's attention by waving a hand in her face. When she finally turns to him he points to himself, “Brooke!”  
She smiles, “Broke?”  
He taps his fingers on the top of the bar and nods, “you may not know what I’m saying but we can surely communicate through music!”  
She taps her fingers, along with his into a short little ditty, her shoulders tense when shouting erupts but Brooke keeps tapping along with her until Luffy jumps on the bar.  
The woman slinks away from the noise towards the green-haired man in the corner. He raises a brow as she stands beside him, being quiet, unlike his captain. She smiles at him and he nods in return.  
She follows as everyone leaves the building. Everyone is handed a square of paper, and she watches as they converse, staying near the swordsman.  
They walk until a large man stops in front of them, attacking the group.  
The woman sinks into the swordsman’s shadow as he draws his swords, sensing something is off.  
The fighting continues and he is thrown back, abnormal pain running through him.  
He gets up and continues fighting.  
If she weren’t anchored in his shadow, Sheila would have had trouble holding onto the man during the fight at the speed he moved.  
When the large man is finally defeated and everyone sits she emerges from the shadow behind the swordsman, draping her arms over his shoulders, “Zora?” She’s sure that was his name from listening to them speak.  
He tenses at her sudden appearance, wondering where she came from while he caught his breath. “Zoro.”  
He leans away when he finds her face closer to his, she only smiles at him.  
Her hands travel over his chest and he finds it easier to breathe, though when he turns to her she seems to have lost some of the colors in her face, and the bags under her eyes were deeper.  
Her skin darkens and her weight disappears but she moves so she’s holding onto Zoro, their chests pressed together but he can’t feel it. He doesn’t notice because of the two figures that had fallen from the trees.  
He runs with Brooke, Usopp clinging onto his back.  
Sheila fades, her markings glowing white and pulsing against her shadow form within Zoro’s shadow.  
“Zoro!”  
Before he’s hit, Sheila appears and hovers over him.  
“I’m made of light.”  
Robin rolls Zoro away and Sheila fades again.  
Then she appears and sinks her teeth into the man’s leg just as Rayleigh appears and kicks his other one away.  
He addresses Rayleigh before looking down at the girl who has disappeared.  
Everything happens fast as Usopp picks up Zoro and starts running. He doesn’t notice as dark grey markings curl over his arms.  
Sanji kicks down the giant and Usopp stops.  
Sheila shouts for him to continue but the giant blasts them.  
She forms again and lifts Zoro over her own shoulder, her body barely able to lift the man, Usopp takes him quickly but is blasted in the exchange.  
Chopper shouts and eats something she can’t see from the distance, turning into a giant monster.  
She whistles at Usopp but he’s too distracted.  
She shouts when another of the giants appears.  
Zoro lifts himself up and she smacks his shoulder.  
The man takes off his glove.  
And they’re gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a few more one piece works for Law and Kid. If you’d like to see any other characters, please leave a comment.


End file.
